Wal-Mart to serve food in small-format stores: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc intends to prepare and serve food in its planned small-format stores, the Financial Times said on Friday, as it competes with British retailer Tesco's Fresh & Easy markets.

The smaller-format stores will include a kitchen, food counters and seating for up to nine people, the FT said, citing planning documents.

Wal-Mart's Marketside format -- planned at 15,000 square feet -- is said to be a third of the size of most of its Neighborhood Market stores, and less than a tenth of the size of most of the world's largest retailer's superstores.

The stores will have a logo showing a pile of stylized fruit and vegetables with the Marketside name in green and a small blue star, the FT said.

A Wal-Mart representative was not able to comment immediately.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman, editing by Will Waterman)